Optometrists, oculists, ophthamologists, and others who fit glasses for their patients often find it necessary to let them handle individual lenses. If a patient wishes to look through a lens to examine its color, for example, he must hold it up to his eye. When he does this, there is always the danger that he will drop, scratch, or dirty the lens.
Lenses are often provided with individual holders to avoid these dangers. Since lenses now come in so many shapes and sizes, a wide variety of holders must be made to accommodate the variations. In addition, most of the holders used today must be heated before the lenses can be snapped into place. The same heating step is needed for removal. As a result, they are frequently hard to secure to and remove from a lens.
The present invention, accordingly, seeks to overcome these difficulties by providing an adjustable holder which can removably hold a variety of lenses. The lens can be readily locked into the frame and removed from it. The holder has a handle for the patient to grasp so that he does not have to handle a lens by its edges.
Another feature of the present invention is that it can receive both circularly and noncircularly shaped lenses. This holder can accommodate both plastic and glass lenses. The lenses may also vary substantially in thickness at their edges and still fit the lens holder.